ABSTRACT
In their discussions of the evolution of U.S. emergency management over the past century, the preceding authors addressed three critical areas: (1) the historical legacy that frames many current views of emergency management and particularly the emergence and expansion of the federal government’s role; (2) the underlying processes affecting these views and the increasing expectations of governments’ responsibilities; and (3) the heightened and intensified debates that took place at all levels of government both legislatively and programmatically in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill in 2010. The authors sought to answer a critical, overriding question: What should be the roles and functions of government for major and catastrophic disasters in the United States?
The post-2010 period presented not only the continued challenges caused by more traditional, but very significant, major disasters, but also new challenges for emergency management. Much like after World War II and the advent of the Cold War, the emergency management professionals had to grapple with radical changes in the risk landscape of the nation, this time caused by physical and cyber terrorism. As the United States moves further into the new century, these changes in the risk landscape raise questions as to whether existing paradigms and skill sets used in emergency management up to 2010 will be sufficient to meet these and other emerging threats, or whether these new threats will require paradigm shifts in emergency management to deal with the new realities of the twenty-first century.
